"Reliance of the Traveller" is not only authenticated by al-Azhar University (the premier seat of Sunni Islamic authority in the world) but also by Islamic legal authorities in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States.

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Maryland, the Maryland Court of Appeals considered this issue as a matter of first impression with respect to printed pages from a MySpace account that it held were not properly authenticated under the Maryland Rules of Evidence.

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However, Thursday's e-mail, which was authenticated by U.S. officials, did not have photos attached either.

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The Court of Appeals agreed that the trial court had abused its discretion by admitting the MySpace pages as appropriately authenticated, in particular because the trial court did not acknowledge the possibility that another user could have created the profile at issue.

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Legal experts say photos and videos, whether posted publicly online or obtained in a more discreet manner by the police, have to meet the same criteria: They must be authenticated, meaning the prosecutors must prove the images are what they seem and have not been altered or staged.

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